Day 33: Low carbs vs Low Fat Diet

After coming across Gary Taubes online last week I have decided to drastically reduce my carbohydrate intake for weight loss. He has written a best selling book (well several actually) called “Why we get fat and what to do about it”. I haven’t read the book myself but there’s enough about it online to understand the main points. In particular I urge you to read a great feature from Reader’s Digest magazine about his book and his weight loss philosophy.

If you were brought up on the ‘fat is bad’ mantra of dieting philosophy then this will show you another way to go that makes a lot of sense. Low carbs is nothing new but sometimes we just need to see information presented to us in way that is relevant for today in order for the penny to drop. This came at just the right time for me.

Taubes acknowledges that in order to lose weight we are told we must eat less calories than we burn up and to exercise to speed up weight loss, however Taubes says that we will find it very hard to lose the weight if we continue to eat carbs – i.e. pasta, bread, rice and potatoes, even if we are managing to eat less calories that we are burning up.  Why?

Your body can either be in ‘Store Fat’ or ‘Burn Fat’ mode when it is presented with a food source. It can only be in one mode or the other at a  given time. Which mode it is in depends on levels of insulin. Eating carbs and sugary foods causes an insulin spike. You body’s response to a surge in insulin is to go into “Store Fat’ mode. Therefore cutting out foods that cause insulin to be released will keep your body in a ‘Burn Fat’ mode. This is probably oversimplified but it worked for me.

This last week I have cut out carbs and have dropped 2-3 lbs. I don’t feel bloated after food and have bags of energy. The proof of the pudding, as they say, is in the eating!

Food Diary Day 33

Breakfast: Menopause Meusli – see breakfast recipe page

Lunch: Felafel Salad

Dinner: Baked Salmon, lentils and Spinach salad

Snacks & Drinks: Herbal tea. 4 squares dark chocolate, ice lolly,

---